Dance

The Media City Ballet and the Armenian Dramatic Arts Alliance gathered respectfully last week to honor their artisans and supporters. Encore! An Evening of Dining and Ballet was staged at Glendale's Chevy Chase Country Club to celebrate the kickoff of the Media City Ballet's 10th season. Headquartered in Burbank, the ballet company presents a season of full-scale productions and studio session presentations. They also bring arts-centered educational programming into local elementary school classrooms.

Molly Shore NORTHWEST DISTRICT -- An after-school dance program for third graders at Bret Harte Elementary School will be showcased at the school's annual spring dance festival at 10 a.m. Friday. Special education assistant Terri Leatherwood, who has been at the school for 15 years, led the children through their choreographed routines Tuesday in preparation for the event. Leatherwood, who teaches dance to 40 students, is a professional dancer with more than 30 years experience in ballet and Broadway musicals.

A talented choreographer with his sights set on New York University, 15-year-old Kevin Zambrano has been blocking out dance numbers since the sixth grade. But the Burbank High School sophomore's work took on a new level of intensity this spring as he set about choreographing a piece in honor of longtime family friend Megan Labus, 12, who is living with an inoperable, cancerous brain tumor. “I would work on it on every day, and I also cut the music,” Kevin said. “It was weeks.” The final product was featured as part of the annual Muir Middle School Pop Show in March when 95 student performers took to the stage to bring the dance to life.

Robert Blechl BURBANK -- A holiday teen dance will be held Saturday at Verdugo Recreation Center for students at Burbank middle schools. From 7 to 10 p.m. teens can dance to music from J.B. Mobile DJ Service. The Burbank Lions Club will also have a raffle for prizes. The dance will be supervised by staff from Burbank Parks and Recreation and also by Burbank police officers. Students are required to bring their school ID. and a note from a parent or guardian stating they are in middle school.

Snapping their fingers and tapping their feet, students at Ralph Emerson Elementary gave their all in a dance celebrating the season on Tuesday. They took over the playground behind the school, wearing homemade costumes and headdresses, performing in turns for a crowd of enthusiastic parents and teachers. "There are like 800 people watching," said 9-year-old Arthur Ayvasyan. Arthur and his fellow fourth-graders had been practicing their dance to the Beatles' "I'm a Believer," for two weeks, and seeing the crowd, some students felt their nerves kick in. "When you practice and no one's watching you, you don't feel nervous," said Ian Shovestull, a 9-year-old Emerson student.

Jenna Bordelon MEDIA DISTRICT NORTH -- The Burbank Center for the Retarded is strapping on its spurs for the fifth dance of the season. A "Western Round-Up" will be from 7:15 to 9:15 p.m. Friday at the McCambridge Recreation Center, 1515 N. Glenoaks Blvd. The center has been holding dances for adults and teenagers 16 and older with developmental disabilities for 28 years. Cowboys and cowgirls are welcome to enjoy a barbecue dinner and stay to kick up their heels.

Julio Barrenzuela tells his story with a kinetic energy coursing through his body. At any moment the sweeping narrative is going to lift him off his chair and swing him into dance. Then he reaches the part about his time in the Navy, stationed in Italy, learning what it truly means to salsa. He stood in a club swinging his hips trying to impress the Italian girl who agreed to a dance. “I thought I knew how to salsa, but when I got there it was all about partners, which is a whole different beast,” he said.

BURBANK — Don Cohen’s palms started to sweat in anxious anticipation of his goddaughter Mia Sanchez taking the stage in the Burbank School of Ballet’s 10th annual recital. “All the dancers just rose to the occasion and were absolutely spectacular,” Cohen said, gripping a bouquet of red roses after the performance. “They have all grown and matured and have beautiful moves.” Cohen was among a packed audience at the Glendale Community College Auditorium on Saturday afternoon to take in dance performances by the school’s 150 dancers.

Ardie Bryant has been tap dancing since the age of 5, when his mother took him to an amateur talent show. The master of ceremonies pulled him up onto to the stage and asked him to show him what he could do. Although he only knew a few steps, it was enough to win him his first competition — and the $5 prize, and set into motion a career that lasted more than 70 years. Now a Burbank resident, the 77-year-old continues to make music with his feet, using a special drum platform he had built to support him and his tapping, he said.

{LDQUO}Mad Hot Ballroom" is a delightful documentary about three groups of fifth-graders from New York City public schools whose lives gain class and dignity by their participation in a citywide ballroom dancing competition. Told in the spirit of "Spellbound," last year's charming documentary of school youngsters in a national spelling bee, "Mad Hot Ballroom" also examines the home lives of several of the children who learn poise and the benefits of team participation, and the effect this has on the process of growing up. Sometimes touching and oft times hilarious, "Mad Hot Ballroom" is as engaging for the audience as the dance competition is for the young students.

A free Zumba party kept more than 45 people movin' and groovin' to the 1980s beat at the Abaka Center for the Performing Arts in Burbank. Participants wore 1980s-style outfits for the August event, said studio Manager Marina Artuni, and danced to music of the era for 90 minutes led by Zumba instructors. The dance studio is celebrating its one-year anniversary this month and Artuni said more free Zumba parties are planned for the future. The studio instructors offer classes in Armenian cultural dances as well as piano and guitar and the fine artists.

One of my favorite things about Burbank has been the Thursday night summer dances at the AMC walkway. Last week, I found out that the dances had been canceled due to budget cuts. I also learned last week that the City Council has hired a new primo, A-one, first class city manager - apparently we had to go to Fresno to find such a marvel - and that we've agreed to pay him a staggering $300,000 per year. He'll make more than the mayor of Los Angeles. I couldn't help but wonder if we could have hired a very competent, diligent person who is already at City Hall and didn't need relocation or housing expenses.

The Burbank Civitan Club has moved its major fundraiser, the St. Patrick's Day Champagne Brunch, to the Burbank Holiday Inn's South Pacific Ballroom for this year's event on Sunday. If you haven't been to the Holiday Inn for some time, you will be mighty impressed with the recent redecoration of all its banquet facilities, executed beautifully by Erika Hofmann, director of operations for the hotel. They are lovely! Civitan members will welcome guests beginning at 10 a.m. with brunch served from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Better set your alarms because we lose an hour of sleep due to the return of daylight saving time.

Fifth-graders at Roosevelt Elementary performed a play for parents and teachers Thursday that incorporated a hula dance they learned from Hawaii native and Roosevelt teacher Tiffany Kaloustian earlier this year. Since October, all 95 fifth-graders on campus practiced the hula with Kaloustian, who had flown in orchids from Hawaii to make leis for the performance . In the months that the students rehearsed the play, they also raised $2,500 by selling lollipops. All the money will go to the Make-A-Wish Foundation, which will help grant a child's wish in April.

Julio Barrenzuela tells his story with a kinetic energy coursing through his body. At any moment the sweeping narrative is going to lift him off his chair and swing him into dance. Then he reaches the part about his time in the Navy, stationed in Italy, learning what it truly means to salsa. He stood in a club swinging his hips trying to impress the Italian girl who agreed to a dance. “I thought I knew how to salsa, but when I got there it was all about partners, which is a whole different beast,” he said.

Burbank on Parade is having a Big Band Swing Dance fundraiser event from 6:30 to 10 p.m. Monday at the Veterans of Foreign Wars building, 1006 W. Magnolia Blvd. The Big Band Swing Express, conducted by Jonathan Goldman, will be playing music of the 1940s, popular modern jazz and a mix of movie theme selections, said Wayne Poirier, parade creative director. “This talented blend of local musicians and vocalists will provide this special performance for the Burbank on Parade fundraising effort,” he said.

The Pacific Ballet Dance Theatre's presentation of “Dance in the USA” at the John Anson Ford Theatre on Aug. 17 was sometimes whimsical, other times inspiring and, a few times, a bit lackluster. However, overall, the Burbank dance company's trip through nearly 10 decades of music - from composers Aaron Copland and Duke Ellington to Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel, from the Beach Boys and B-52's to Michael Jackson - at the Hollywood open-air theater, was pleasantly entertaining. While the musical soundtrack was spot-on, some of the performances by the Pacific Ballet Dance Theatre (formerly the Media City Ballet Company)

While some had no choice but to stand due to a sell-out, standing-room-only house, even those with seats at the John Anson Ford Amphitheatre took to their feet in a standing ovation following the Pacific Ballet Dance Theatre's “Dance in the USA” performance Friday evening. The show, created and directed by PBDT's Founder, Artistic Director and Choreographer Natasha Middleton, with the assistance of Edward Arno, saw the Burbank-born dance company, formerly known as the Media City Ballet, offer up a mid-summer-night salute to the songwriters, composers and recording artists who have influenced American dance over the past century.

Students of the Red Chair School of Performing Arts have been accepted to summer intensive ballet programs across the United States and for the first time, one Red Chair student is going to Russia. Those accepted are Elizabeth Briggs, Ryan Sinton, Emily Anasti, Rose Filichia, Lena Harris, Rebecca Levin, Haley Briggs, Layton Briggs, Emma Casali, Josie Nivar, Leah Perez, Brooke Sinton, Penny Yokas and Molly-Jo Terry. Elizabeth “Lizzy” Briggs, a junior at Burbank High School, was also selected.

Natasha Middleton's ballet studio and company are evolving in their second decade, but she said she stays true to her main philosophy - perpetuating the tradition of the Ballet Russe while training young dancers for the professional spotlight. Middleton is a third-generation ballet dancer. Her grandmother Elena Wortova danced with the Ballet Russe, a premier dance company that began in Paris in 1909, and her father Andrei Tremaine performed with the off-shoot company the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo.